The live-action Netflix One Piece adaption has begun shooting in South Africa, to the delight and dread of fans.

Being shot in South Africa, film production in the nation had halted amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, the photo of the first script for the series has confirmed shooting has got underway. The episode title, Romance Dawn, is in reference to two short stories written by Eiichiro Oda, and what would be a prototype of One Piece. 

It should be noted episode #101 means series 1, episode 01. The show’s logo also seems to use a realistic skull, rather than the stylized “Jolly Roger” style logo the manga and anime have.

While Oda was confirmed to be the show’s Executive Producer, everything else about it has been kept under wraps; the Going Merry and other ships being spied under construction not withstanding. However, the character descriptions for the series were recently uncovered; hinting at what the series might do.

Based on the description for Nami, and what members of the crew will be present, it seems the story will be set around the Arlong Park arc; though depending on the pace of the series this may start with the first chapter of the manga.

Most of the characters recommend the nationalities match what Oda himself had proposed when fans asked what real-life races the Straw Hat pirates would be. For Nami and Sanji however, the leaked notes list them as “any race.” Oda had previously proposed they would be Swedish and French respectively.

Despite the series being overseen by Oda, it may be a hard sell to fans. A recent poll was issued to Japanese viewers of video distribution service 1Screen, asking what anime titles they wanted to see Hollywood adapt into live-action. The outstanding answer was “nothing.” 

Based on the replies to the Netflix tweet, most fans seem to be dreading what will be produced, due to Netflix’ infamy with their anime adaptions. Some have faith in Oda’s seal of approval, and the show’s lead writers (Matt Owens and Steven Maeda) are allegedly big fans of One Piece. 

Recently Netflix revealed the first look of their adaption of Cowboy Bebop. While fans mulled over the accuracy of the costumes, actress Daniella Pineda (Faye Valentine) released a sarcastic video mocking that she did not match the character’s build, and that it was difficult “doing stunts in tissue paper.”